Sketching my dear little Millie, the Formosan Mountain Dog, a rescue from Taiwan and always a source of inspiration for drawing, painting, and getting out in nature every day for a walk.
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Cranky About Camellias
I tried and tried to paint the beautiful camellias that grow on a large bush outside my studio window. After the third attempt (above) I was too cranky to keep trying and failing to capture them. I decided to give up on them until next year’s bloom when I will try again. Below are the previous attempts.
Initial quick sketch in Procreate on the iPad to get to know the flowers
First attempt at painting. Meh
Photo of setup for first painting
Second Painting. Still not happy.
I took a class on Schoolism.com with Jason Seiler about drawing realistic portraits that was very helpful. This was part of the homework for the class, drawing lots of eyes. Above is one from Sktchy app and below are from photos from that class, the web and people I know. The next one below is my son Robin. All are done on the iPad in Procreate.
I tried several times to draw Alexa, a young woman I found on the Sktchy app, whose photo (below, top left) reminded me of the 16th century Flemish paintings of women. None of my sketches are great but it was fun trying to draw her as one of those ladies. All done on Procreate on the iPad.
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First Calla Lily
Continuing on with my big May catch-up on posting work from the past few months. It was a gloomy winter day but one of the volunteer calla lilies was blooming and I had to paint it. This was a one-session alla prima oil painting.
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A Kiss from a Special Friend
I had intended this as a Valentines day post….but here it is in May! Done in Procreate on the iPad from an inspiration photo on the Sktchy app.
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Gouache Still Life and Landscape Experiments
Still trying to sort out how to work with gouache. Having the right brushes and palette are really helping. This is the second time I painted some of the medical equipment below, which I previously painted in oils.
I’m going to be posting daily in order to catch up with a bunch of work done previously and never posted. Then I can be current everywhere instead of just on Instagram and Facebook. So here are some sketches I did from the TV while watching Project Runway’s last season. All were done on the iPad in Procreate last year! Above and just below the lovely Maragarita from Puerto Rico.
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Irises on White Cloth
I painted these from life, but first did a value sketch in Procreate to help me stay within the range of values I chose for the painting. That’s a concept I’ve been pondering: that you can design whatever value range you want for a painting, from mostly light to mostly dark, and then mix the paint colors accordingly. I printed out the Procreate value sketch and put it on my easel for reference as you can see in the work in progress photos below.
While my backyard and the entrance to my studio were inaccessible due to construction I did more drawing and painting on my iPad than on canvas. The 12.9″ iPad is just the right size for me and the Apple Pencil makes it just like drawing with a great pencil or pen except so much easier to erase or start over without fear of “wasting” paper. Here are a few of those sketches from TV and photos.
Jana Bouc, Artist 